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A-LEVEL PSYCH > PSYCHOPATHOLOGY > Flashcards

PSYCHOPATHOLOGY Flashcards

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1
Q

Define statistical infrequency

A

person’s trait, thinking / behaviour would be considered to be an indication of abnormality if it was found to be statistically rare

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2
Q

Strength of statistical infrequency

A

-real world application
-used in clinical practice for diagnosis of psychological disorder and assess severity of symptoms
-Beck’s depressions inventory (BDI) assesses severity of depressions symptoms - score of 30+ = severe depression
-SI is useful for diagnostic and assessment procedures for psych disorders

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3
Q

Weakness of statistical infrequency

A

-Unusual characteristics can be positive as well as negative
-e.g. if there’re highly intelligent people with IQ>130 but we wouldn’t consider it as abnormal even though they’re displaying unusual behaviour
-being unusual at 1 end of psych spectrum wouldn’t warrant a diagnosis for a disorder
-SI cannot be used as a sole basis for diagnosing abnormality

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4
Q

Define deviations from social norms

A

concerns behaviour that is different from the accepted standards of behaviour in a community

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5
Q

Strength of DFSN

A

-real world application
-DFSN can be used in clinical process of diagnosing psych disorders eg antisocial personality disorder and schizotypal personality disorder
-symptoms of these disorders are all DFSN
-DFSN can be used to diagnose personality disorders

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6
Q

Weakness of DFSN

A

-Variation between social norms in different cultures
-eg hearing noises =normal in some cultures but in UK= abnormal
-diagnosis of disorders may differ from culture to culture due to variations from social norms
-makes DFSN hard to judge in different cultures/situations

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7
Q

Define failure to function adequately

A

occurs when someone is unable to cope with the ordinary demands of day to day living

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8
Q

Proposement of F2FA

A

-Rosenhan and Seligman (1989)
-signs that can be used to determine when someone isn’t coping:
- no longer conforms to standard interpersonal rules (space, eye contact etc)
-experience severe personal distress
-irrational behaviour
-Diagnosis can only be made if someone is showing F2FA

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9
Q

Strength of F2FA

A

-Represents a suitable threshold for when professional help is needed
-around 25% of people in UK will experience a mental health problem. However many people press on in the face of fairly severe symptoms
-It tends to be at the point that we cease to function adequately that people seek professional help / noticed by others.
-treatment and services can be target to those who need them the most

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10
Q

Weakness of F2FA

A

-Easy to label non-standard life choices as abnormal
-can be very hard to say when someone is F2FA when they have chosen to deviated from social norms
-not having a job may seem like F2FA for some but people with alternative lifestyles choose to live ‘off-grind’
-people who make unusual choices are at risk of being labelled as abnormal

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11
Q

Define deviation from ideal mental health

A

-occurs when someone doesn’t meet the criteria for a good mental health
-Johoda (1958) - DFIMH focuses on what makes people normal and then considers those who deviated from this to be abnormal

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12
Q

Strength of DFIMH

A

-highly comprehensive
-Johoda’s concept of IMH includes a range of criteria fro distinguishing mental health from mental disorders and covers reasons why we might seek help with it
-so individuals mental health would be discusses meaningfully with professionals eg psychiatrists
-IMH provides a checklist against which we can assess ourselves and others and discuss psych issues with professionals

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13
Q

Weakness of DFIMH

A

-different elements aren’t equally applicable across a range of cultures
-J’s criteria for IMH is firmly located in context of US, Europe and concepts of self-actualisation would probably be dismissed as self-indulgent in much of the world e.g. germany
-what defines success, social, love-lives are different in every culture
-difficult to apply concept of IMH from one culture to another

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14
Q

Define phobia

A

anxiety disorder which interferes with daily living
-it is an instance of irrational fear that produces a conscious avoidance of the feared object/situation

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15
Q

Behavioural characteristics of phobias

A

-panic
-avoidance
-endurance

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16
Q

Emotional characteristics of phobias

A

-anxiety
-fear
-unreasonable

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17
Q

cognitive characteristics of phobias

A

-selective attention to phobic stimulus
-irrational beliefs
-cognitive distortions

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18
Q

Behavioural approach to explaining phobias

A

-emphasises role of learning in acquisition of behaviour.
-Mowrer (1960) proposed two-process model. States that phobias are acquired by classical conditioning and then maintained because of operant conditioning

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19
Q

Acquisition by classical conditioning

A

-cc involves learning by association to what we initially have no fear (neutral stimulus) with something already triggers a fear response (unconditioned stimulus)
-Watson and Rayner (1920) - created phobia in Little Albert (9 month old). He showed no unusual anxiety at start of study. Shown white rat he tried playing with it but researcher made a loud frightening noise by banging iron bar close to his ear. noise = UCS which creates an UCR ofd fear. When rat (NS) becomes associated with UCS and both now produce fear. He displayed fear when he saw the rat (NS). Rat is now a learned or CS that produces a CR.
This conditioning then generalised to similar objects - showed Albert fury objects eg fur coat, Watson wearing Santa beard made out of cotton balls and Albert displayed distress at sight of all these.

20
Q

Maintenance by operant conditioning

A

-responses acquired by classical conditioning usually tend to decline overtime but phobias are often long lasting - due to operant conditioning
-o.c. takes place when behaviour is reinforced (rewarded) or punished - reinforcement = increase frequency of behaviour
-Mowrer - whenever we avoid phobic stimulus we successfully escape fear and anxiety that we would have experience if we remained there. This reduction in fear reinforces avoidance behaviour s phobia is maintained

21
Q

Strengths of behavioural approach to explaining phobias

A

-real world application in exposure therapies eg systematic desensitisation
-two process model suggests that phobias are maintained by avoidance of phobic stimulus and this is important in explaining why people with phobias benefit from being exposed to phobia stimulus
-once avoidance behaviour is prevented it ceases to be reinforced by anxiety reduction and avoidance therefore declines - phobia avoided = phobia cured
-shows value of two-process approach as it identifies a means of treating phobias

-evidence for a link between bad experiences and phobia
-Ad De Jongh et al (2006) found 73% of people with fear of dental treatment has experiences a traumatic experience mostly involving dentistry (others experienced being victim of violent crime)
-compared to control group of people with low dental anxiety (21% experienced traumatic event
-confirms association between stimulus (dentistry) and an UCR (pain) does lead to development of phobia

22
Q

Limitation of behaviour approach to explaining phobias

A

-two process model does not account for cognitive aspects of phobias
- in case of phobias the key behaviour is avoidance of phobic stimulus but we know that phobias aren’t simply avoidance responses - also have significant cognitive components
-eg people hold irrational beliefs about phobic stimulus (thinking spider is dangerous)
-two-process model explains avoidance behaviour but doesn’t offer an adequate explanation for phobic cognitions so two-process model does not completely explain symptoms of phobia

-Counterpoint
-not al phobias appear following a bad experience
-eg phobias of snake occur in populations where very few people have any experience of snakes let alone traumatic experiences
-not all frightening experiences lead to phobias
-means association between phobias and frightening experiences is not as strong as we would expect if behavioural theories provided a complete explanation

23
Q

Behavioural approach to treating phobias - systematic desensitisation (SD)

A
  • reduce phobic anxiety through the principle of classical conditioning
  • phobic stimulus is paired with relation instead of anxiety - learning through counterbalancing
24
Q

Processes of SD

A

1) Anxiety hierarchy - list of situations related to phobic stimulus that provoke anxiety. arranged in order from least to most frightening
2) relaxation - therapist teaches client to relax as deeply as possible. Can’t be afraid and relaxed at the same time (reciprocal inhibition)
3) exposure - exposed to phobia in a relaxed state. Takes place across several sessions. Successful treatment when client can stay relaxed in situations high at anxiety hierarchy

25
Q

Strengths of SD

A
  • Evidence for effectiveness
    -Gilroy followed up 34 people who had SD for SD for spider phobia in three 45 minute sessions. At both 3 and 33 months the SD group were less fearful than control group treated with relaxation but not exposure
    -SD is likely to be helpful for people with phobias

-For people with leaning disabilities this is the only sensible treatment available today
-people with learning disabilities may struggle with cognitive therapy that require rational thought
-they may be confused and distressed with flooding
-SD = more appropriate treatment for people with learning disabilities who have phobias

26
Q

Flooding therapy

A

-exposing people with a phobia to their phobic stimulus but without a gradual build up in an anxiety hierarchy
-involves immediate exposure to frightening situation
-typically longer that SD sessions l- 1 session lasting 2-3 hours

27
Q

Process of flooding

A

-stops phobic responses very quickly - without the option of avoidance behaviour, the client quickly learns the phobic stimulus as harmless
-classical conditioning - extinction
-a learned response is estnguised when the conditioned stimulus (eg dog) is encountered without the unconditioned stimulus (eg being bitten). the result is that the conditioned stimulus no longer produces the conditioned response (fear)
-at the same point client may achieve relaxation in presence of phobic stimulus because they may become exhausted by their own fear response

28
Q

Strength of flooding treatment

A

-cost effective
-clinically effective and not expensive
-can work as little as 1 session as opposed to 10 sessions for SD to achieve same result. Even allowing for a longer session (perhaps 3 hours), making it more cost effective
-more people can be treated at the same cost with flooding than SD/ other therapies

29
Q

Weakness of flooding treatment

A
  • traumatic - highly unpleasant
    -confronting one’s phobic stimulus provokes tremendous anxiety
    -Schumacher (2015) found that participants and therapists rated flooding as significantly more stressful than SD. This raises ethical issues for psychs of knowingly causing stress
    -suggests that overall therapists may avoid using this treatment
30
Q

Define unipolar/ major depressions disorder

A

characterised by a persistent feeling of sadness /lack of interest in outside stimuli

31
Q

Define bipolar depressive disorder

A

oscillating state between depression and mania

32
Q

Define depression

A

mental disorder characterised by changes of mood

33
Q

Behavioural characteristics of depression

A

-reduced activity levels. May be opposite (psychomotor agitation) struggle to relax and may eve end up pacing up and down
-disruption to sleep and eating behaviour - may experience insomnia, increased need for sleep (hypersomnia), same with appetite
-agression and self harm

34
Q

Emotional characteristics of depression

A

-lowered mood - describe themselves as ‘worthless’ and ‘empty’
-anger - can be directed to self or others
-lowered self esteem

35
Q

Cognitive characteristics of depression

A

-poor concentration - unable to stick to tasks as they usually would
-attending to and dwelling on the negative - pay more attention to negative aspects and ignore positives. Also have bias towards recalling unhappy events rather than happy ones
-absolutist thinking - ‘black and white thinking’ means when a situation is unfortunate they tend to see it as an absolute disaster

36
Q

Ellis’s ABC model

A

-Good mental health is result of rational thinking. Conditions likes anxiety and depression (poor mental health) result from irrational thoughts

A (activating state) - focused on situations in which irrational thoughts are triggered by external events. we get depressed when we experience negative events and these trigger irrational beliefs

B (beliefs) - belief that we must always succeed = musturbation (major disaster when something doesn’t go smoothly), utopianism = life is always meant to be fair

C (consequences) - when activating event triggers belief there are emotional + behavioural consequences eg belief they must succeed and fail = trigger depression

37
Q

Beck’s cognitive theory of depression

A

-people’s cognitions create a vulnerability to depression. 3 parts to cognitive vulnerability:
1) faulty information processing - paying attention to the negatives and ignoring positive in a situation. also includes ‘black and white’ thinking
2) negative self schemas - interpret all info about ourselves in a negative way
3) negative triad - person develops a dysfunctional view on self due to 3 type of negative thinking: negative view on self, world and future (cognitive triad)

38
Q

Strength of Ellis’s ABC model

A

-real world application for psych treatment of depression
-ellis’s approach = rational emotive behaviour therapy
-rigorously arguing with a depressed person the therapist can alter irrational beliefs that make them unhappy. There’s evidence support
-REBT have real world value

39
Q

Limitation of Ellis’s ABC model

A

-doesn’t explain endogenous depression
-model only explains depressions that triggered by a life event but some cases of depression aren’t traceable to life events and its not obvious what leads the person to become depressed at a particular time (endogenous depression) E’s ABC model is less useful for explaining endogenous depression
-model can only explain some cases of depression and is therefore a partial explanation

40
Q

Process of cognitive approach to treating depression

A

1) assessment will take place. (patients + CB therapist work together to clarify patient’s problems
2) they jointly identify goals and put together a plan to achieve them
3)key point - identify where there might be negative / irrational thoughts that’ll benefit from challenge
4) work on changing these thoughts and put more effective behaviours in place

41
Q

CBT - cognitive element

A

-one of the central tasks is to identify where there might be negative/irrational thoughts that’ll benefit from challenge
-behaviour element - CBT then involves working to change irrational thoughts and put more effective behaviours into place

42
Q

CBT - Beck’s cognitive triad

A

-challenge thoughts directly
-aims to get patients to test the reality of their negative belief
-set hw - ‘patient as a scientist’
-hw can be used as evidence to prove the patient’s statements are incorrect

43
Q

CBT - Ellis’s rational emotive behaviour therapy (REBT)

A

-dysfunctional thoughts=thoughts that are likely to interfere with person’s happiness
-central technique is to identify and challenge irrational thoughts
-REBT extends ABC model to ABCDE. D = dispute E = effect

44
Q

CBT - behavioural activation

A
  • depression can lead to people to become isolated as they would avoid difficult situations, this can make symptoms worse
    -goal of behavioural activation = decrease avoidance + isolation and increase engagement activities. This has been shown to improve mood
45
Q

Cognitive approach to treating depression - A03

A

-evidence supporting its effectiveness for treating depression > eg M

46
Q

Cognitive approach to treating depression - A03

A

-evidence supporting its effectiveness for treating depression > eg March (2007) compared CBT to antidepressants and combo of both treatments when treating 337 depressed adolescence. After 36 weeks,81% of CBT group, 81% of antidepressant group and 86% of CBT+ antidepressant group significantly improved> CBT is just as effective when used on own and more when used alongside antidepressants > CBT widely seen as first choice in health care systems

-Lack of effectiveness for severe cases and learning disabilities > severe clients cannot motivate themselves to engage with cognitive work of CBT and may not be able to pay attention in sessions> complex rational thinking involved in CBT is unsuitable for clients with learning disabilities (Sturmey)-any form of psychotherapy isn’t suitable for learning difficulties> CBT may only be appropriate for specific range of people
-HOWEVER there’s evidence now that challenges this> Lewis and Lewis (2016) concluded that CBT was as effective as antidepressants and behavioural therapies for severe depression. Taaylor (2006) - if used appropriately CBT is effective for people with learning disabilities> suitable for wider range of people than once thought

-High relapse rates > CBT is quite effective in tackling depressive symptoms but there’s concerns over how long the benefits last > recent studies suggest long-term outcomes aren’t as good as had been assumed > eg Ali (2017) assessed depression in 439 clients every month for following a course of CBT. 42% relapsed into depression within 6 months and 53% relapsed within a year of ending treatment > CBT may need to be repeated continuously

A-LEVEL PSYCH (17 decks)

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